Yesterday took more out of me than I thought...I feel asleep on the couch with the kids watching a movie. But, today was a SRD so I think I'll switch yesterday's 10 GA with today's rest day. I have a 4mi recovery tomorrow and a 15mi LR on Sunday...that should work out ok, right?

Good morning. Today is SRD. Since it is so pretty, I may still get in a very easy run. DH had to get to work early so I missed my window this morning. I don't feel like my gait has changed but I am going to monitor the knee for now. Tomorrow's 8 miler will be at the park where the surface is a little flatter.

DH and I talked about training for a full on our walk last night. He supports my plan, which is good. I had to take a look at RF's find on Finish Line because I really want another pair of adrenalines. Of course, I got in on the deal too. Sorry for being such a copycat!

Clay--enjoy your 10. That sounds like a tough 3 days to me, but I don't have a reference for full marathon training.

Jill--I hope you and your DH have a fun date night. My DH and I often say we need a little escape from all the action with kids and pets and chores at home.

Ant--Great 12 with the fast miles, especially feeling sluggish. Good food deserves all caps. I am going to a winery this weekend and hoping I find some good tasting stuff too.

Stephanie--so happy you had a good 10 miler!

Rachel--glad you like your shoes.

Bird--holy smokes. Congrats on your fast mile.

Sandy--well hopefully you had some cake baked by a non-duck.

RF--sorry for stalking your shoe purchases. I have been settling into @ 9:30 pace for my easy runs and this is why I am getting nervous about intervals. Seems like a long time since I have done anything fast.

Ted--bet these temps are much nicer for running with your fast lunch friend.

Still nice weather last night! 4 easy miles followed by about 30 min. weights; I was feeling kind of tired so I just did mostly upper body, core and the necessary hip/glute ones. I think running every day since last Friday is wearing me out a little bit combined w/ the stress of a houseguest, work craziness and trying to get ready to leave in the RV on Sunday. As long as we don't get rained out (which is a possibility) the fun run w/ DH tonight but that's the only workout I'm doing today. I don't plan to try and do anything speedy either since I'm tired. Tomorrow a.m. I need to get up at my normal workday time to get in a LR (planning 10) then home to finish laundry, start packing, then fly down to Indy for my nephew's first birthday party ....I got him some little under armour sweats.....heehee.....and a toy of course

Jill - enjoy your date night! I'm sure you and DH will sort things out and find some common ground; we all have our stuff we have to work through so don't think you're alone!! Some days are just far more aggravating than others! Looks like you're still managing to get in some good runs and workouts! I keep trying to work on that plan you gave me; I haven't increased the weight yet on most of the reps but a few of them I know I could. I'm still only getting about 2 days/week of lifting but last week I did a couple extra days of ST in my pool too

Rachel - hmmmm....I don't see the pics.....sorry about the GI issues....is that a frequent issue for you?

Michelle - I'm glad you got in on the deal at Finish Line - I don't mind sharing the shoe joy I'm guessing you got the bright red ones too then?! I kind of like loud shoes so I was happy at the price and the obnoxious color! Mine are supposed to come Monday but since I'll be gone until Wed. I won't get to wear them until later next week. I'm crossing my fingers they kept everything the same - I've been lucky that the last 2 versions of the adrenaline have been consistent but brooks sometimes doesn't know when to leave well enough alone.

Clay - I wouldn't think swapping out today and yesterday is a big deal, especially since tomorrow is an easy recovery day before the LR. Sleep is definitely an important piece of the puzzle. I was reading an article the other day in fact that a lot of the elite marathoners get easily 10+ hours of sleep a day and naps when necessary....must be nice!!!!!

ANT - sounds like you had a great trip! Yes, nothing more fun than new shoes Luckily they'll come while I'm gone for a few days next week so that will force me to take old ones with me and use them up!!

RF, your life sounds crazy busy! I've always enjoyed RVing; seems like the only way to do camping in the muggy midwest. I've had trouble with GI issues on and off... I did when I first started running 4 miles or longer, but then I pretty much got it under control. This is the first big flare-up I've had since then. Dehydration is normally the primary cause and I always seem to wake up dehydrated no matter how much I drink the night before, so maybe I was just extra dehydrated this morning. Going to try to drink lots of water today and wake up a bit early before my 8 miler tomorrow.

No running again for me today. Just feeling a little BLAH after vacay. Maybe it's because we're still running around a little ragged visiting relatives and eating out since DD is still in town 'til Sunday. Once she leaves on Sunday and DS goes back to school on Monday, I'll be ramping up for Monumental. I might try and sneak out for a quick run tomorrow to finish off the "prep" phase, then start on Monday getting more serious/focused.

BD, congrats on the sub-5 mile! Super fast!

Ted, good double.

Sandy, nice 6'er. Good catch on the signature.

ANT, good lookin' 3x2 workout. If that felt sluggish, I imagine that can only bode well for race day when you'll undoubtedly be feeling great and those paces will feel easy... for a while at least, haha.

Clay, I'm sure your inner-muleness can handle the 10-4-15... just keep the paces on the Easy side, especially for the 4 recovery, and you'll be fine.

Jill, great 6.35 miler! Great consistency. To be honest, that's EXACTLY how I like to see a runner accomplish a run... start a little on the slow side the 1st mile, speed up a tad the 2nd mile, then hit some consistent miles for the remainder of the run. Well done.

Terrible run on a very nice day. It's to be expected after yesterday's workout.

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Sandy: or the day after the LR. Why do you want to drop a day? It will reduce your weekly mileage by quite a bit.

Mark: I always feel blah after vacations - I think it's the same feeling as after races - the big event is done so now what?

Rachel: the Frees look wicked with those glowing Nike swooshes. They look like they have good cushion so a good transition shoe.

RF: hah hah on the little Under Armour sweats.

MIchelle: which winery is that? Keep doing those straight leg lifts before running. 5 sets of 10 both legs. You won't see much of a difference for a couple of weeks but keep at it - eventually you should see a big difference. Glad the DH supports your plan. Grudging acceptance is what I get

Clay: I'll let Mark or Stephanie comment on that because they know the Pfitz plan better than me but it sounds good.

Jill: DW got on board with my running when she started running too. Does he do any activity that you support? Or maybe he can start. The other thing I do is try to minimize the impact on the family by running very early before they feel like doing anything. And I never complain about being tired when doing activities with them. You guys will work it out.

7 miles around the neighborhood fueled by last night's pizza and Ritter's frozen custard.

ANT - I don't understand the first sentence of your response. Anyway, I just don't think I (more specifically my body) can handle 6 days a week. I've developed a hip thing and I've never had pain in my hip before. I just think this Hanson thing is too much for me.

After looking at the forecast, I decided to take today off and get back to it tomorrow morning. That's when I had originally planned to 'get serious' anyways, so it will fall right into my planned schedule. Gonna do it.... tomorrow.

ANT, good job getting through the terrible 7. It's daunting to think any 7 miler is considered to be an Easy or Recovery run, haha! I guess that's what it takes to get to your mileage level.... hopefully I'll get there some day.

Sandy, nice 7 in the hood. Ritter's, oh yeah, sounds so good.

.......I suspect that running 6+ days per week isn't for everyone for various reasons. If you don't do the entire plan, some modifications are certainly acceptable to fit into your lifestyle and/or ability level... All of these "canned plans" are more of guidelines after all. I would guess that, if you decided to pay for an individualized Hanson plan (like I believe ANT and Clint have done) and told them that you need 2 days of rest per week, they would have no objections to that approach. Also, sorry about my old brain's lack of memory, but I don't really recall if you've ever done any Speed or Tempo work for a sustained period of time before?

Clay, why wary? Looks like a really good run to me.

Rod, congrats on almost being done with the move. I may have missed this, but is your injury running related?

Quick check in before my shower: just got back from my first 8 miler since my half! I felt like the best kind of hard; it was amazing. It was hilly so my pace wasn't super consistent, but I averaged 11:40 with most of the middle (hilly) miles between 11:50 and 12:00.

My hips (especially my left) were super tight yesterday but ITB stretches and the stick worked well. This morning it was much better and I found they warmed up after a couple of miles.

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Sandy: why don't you just do Higdon Intermediate 2 starting in week 5 (check my math)? Cap the long run at 16 miles and transfer the extra mileage to the medium long run during the week. For example in week 15 you are supposed to do 10 on Wed and 20 on Sunday. Instead do 14 on Wed and 16 on Sunday. See my comments above on my hip - maybe you have the same thing. If the stretches make it feel better there's a good chance that's what you have.

p.s. I have 2 questions for you and/or clint (and/or other Hansonites):::

When the schedule on Thursday reads something like "Tempo 6," does it mean 6 @ T plus w/u and c/d? Or does it mean 6 total with 4 of them @ T? The plan tops out at Tempo 7,,, and I was just thinking that 7 @ T seems like quite a bit for a HM.

Is there a link anywhere to some Speed/Strength workouts for the Hansons? I can come up with my own from other plans, just wondering if they had some listed somewhere.

Quick check in for me... 5.5 miles this morning while Cameron was doing warm up for his swim meet. Thankfully this was the last one, so no more getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays! He did a great job at divisionals, so I am a super proud Mommy today! Happy running everyone.

Sandy- I did want to add that there is no rule that says you have to do 6 days... If you are worried about losing some of the mileage though you can just add a few miles to runs here and there.

8 at 9:35. Tomorrow is a rest day, so total mileage this week is 26.26. Knee was OK.

My best friend celebrates her birthday every year at the Jennie Devoe concert at Wilson Winery near Muncie, so I am getting dinner for DH and the kids and heading that way soon. Their wine is too sweet for me, but a nice chilled glass of blackberry wine at sunset with friends is very nice.

No time for replies today except, ahem, Sandy didn't you just buy 2 pairs of shoes?

No experience with Hanson but it seems that if you dropped a day it would change the program significantly if the longest run is 16m. A 5 day a week program is fine but the more miles the better for marathon endurance. I like doing some 20 milers personally.

1) 6 tempo means 6@HMP not including WU and CD. They recommend 1.5 miles for the WU and CD or 9 miles total. I personally find running at HMP way too hard. I would do these workouts

5X1@HMP with 400m recoveries

4X1.5 miles @HMP with 800m recoveries

2X2 miles @HMP with 800m recoveries

3X2 miles @HMP with 1 mile recoveries

2X3 miles @HMP with 1 mile recoveries

Do them in this order on Thursdays:

5X1

4X1.5

2X2

4X1.5

3X2

2X3

5X1

and then repeat.

2) Speed means 3 miles of intervals at 5k-10k pace. I always do 6X800@5k pace with 400m recoveries. I do 2 mile WU and CD. But you could also do 3X1 mile with 800m recoveries or whatever.

Strength means 6 miles of intervals at HMP - 10 sec with the same structure as the LT intervals discussed above.

If you do LT intervals instead of continuous tempo runs then it might not make sense to do strength intervals on Tues and LT intervals on Thurs.

Here's a suggestion:

During the speed part of the plan do your speed days on Tues and LT intervals on Thurs. Then when you get to the strength part of the plan do strength intervals on Tues and continuous tempo runs on Thurs. I would start with 4 miles tempo not including WU and CD. This should be very doable after having done 2X3 in the first half of the plan. After a couple of weeks at 4 I would move to 5 and keep it there until taper. If 5 is good move it up to 6 but I would not do 7. BTW crazy Pfitz has Clay doing 8!

I hope I've explained myself clearly. If not ask away. I'm no expert this is just my opinion.

9.3 miles at 8:49 avg. super windy, and not very warm, except when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. I ran up that dang ol' big hill again, and I charged it! 3/4 of a mile later, my outer right calf was hurting. Then in the last full mile, my knees were hurting, so I slowed down considerably.

Michelle, wine with friends sounds like so much fun! Nice mileage this week.

Steph, good 5.5! Way to go, Cameron!

Mark, sorry, I don't have any answers for you. Enjoy your day off--today!

Rod, happy packing! Glad you got to enjoy the outdoors with your brother.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. My running is just the tip of the iceberg with him, and things go much deeper than just how much time I spend running. It seems that my running is just one more thing for him to complain about.

Did lots of lifting of boxes and other items today. At least part of the storage unit is organized for the movers

Mark-as far as I can tell, yeah, this hip issue is running related. i don't remember doing anything to it otherwise. i'm jonesing to get out and run in this fabulous morning weather. might try tomorrow morning and do a short 20 minutes or so and hope the competitive juices don't kick in.

Ran 5 with 3 x 1 mi. @ what I thought would be a pretty reasonable ~HMP... I may have been wrong. I was sluggish to start the reps. and never really hit a good stride. I'm wondering if I'm just not ready for that long of reps yet? Or if the few days off in a row caused a little more sluggishness than usual. One mistake I made was that I did not do striders after my 1 mi. warmup... so, for that 1st Mile rep, I found it harder to get up to speed than usual... usually, I have to slow myself down for that 1st mile... not today. Not real happy with this... also, as a significant side note: over the past few weeks, I've gained back most of the weight I'd lost. I know that doesn't help my paces. I'm not in a good place with a goal HM just 14 weeks away... Egad.

ANT, thanks for that wealth of information. It all makes perfect sense... and fills in some blanks in the Hanson plan that I hadn't been able to find online.

Clint, thanks to you also. I figured it meant to do a continuous Tempo run.

ANT/Clint::: The problem is that, at my paces, I'm a bit skeptical that I should ever run 6-7 miles @ Tempo in a training run... I'm generally of the opinion that 45 mins. should be the ceiling for a true Tempo run (I believe in the 20-40 minutes @ 1 hr. race pace rule)... 6-7 miles takes me well past that time marker.

Jill, strong 9+... be careful with the calf, don't need an injury when you're running so well!

Ted, nice rainy 16'er!

Clay, good 4 recovery.

Rod, as somewhat of a cautious runner, I must admit that I was afraid you'd come up injured this summer. Your paces are WAY FASTER than they used to be... and, while you're obviously a bit faster due to the combo of losing weight and running more miles, dropping 1:30-2:00 per mile on every run over the course of just a few months is on the extreme side,,,, if you run too many miles at too fast of a pace, it introduces too much intensity too quickly and usually results in injury or, at least, burnout. I am pretty sure this, along with my non-stop sinus issues last summer/fall, are what led to my burnout and lack of mileage over the winter thus leaving me in the sad state that I'm currently in. I also believe too much fast running is responsible for most of the injuries our co-posters experience. My opinion is not necessarily correct, but I think it is.

Great run in great temps. I ran this on a fairly flat route as opposed to my usual hilly LR route. I'll do my LR on this flat route from now on because I'll be doing HMP running on the hills during the week.

I was rounding a bend towards the end of the run when I saw a man with two dogs - one on a leash and one not. The man didn't seem alarmed that I was coming and didn't make any moves towards the unleashed dog. I figured it was one of those dogs who behaves well off the leash. But then suddenly the dog makes a beeline for me while the man makes some half-hearted wimpy commands at the dog who is not listening. When the dog got close I stood tall, pointed at it, and basically shouted No! The dog reacted like it had been shot - suddenly turning to the side with its tail between its legs. I could tell the man was not pleased - he could tell I was going to go ape if that dog jumped on me.

56 for the week

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Mark: do 5-6 strides on Mon (before Tues speed day) and Sat (before LR day). Those strides combined with Tues speed days will make your HMP days feel a LOT better. And yes they help a ton during WU. Don't get discouraged before you have even started. By race day you will be a different man. HMP always feels terrible during training. 7:30 felt impossible to me while I was training for the Mini but I did it on race day (still felt terrible). Everyone is different - Pfitz says you should do continuous LT runs - but I personally find that intervals work well enough. The key is average weekly mileage anyway.

Clay: nice 4.

Rod: hope that hip clears up. Doing anything for it?

Jill: that was a fast 9.3. Like I asked Rod: doing any strengthening exercises for your knees and calves?

Ted: fast 16!

Michelle: your mileage is creeping up nicely. Going from 26 to 35 over 14 weeks ain't no thang. I bet you will peak at 40.

2. Forgot to mention I had a killer Basset Hound come out into the street barking at me this morning. I stopped and talked nicely to him, but he kept barking. His owner informed me from her front door that Barney wouldn't bite me.... I told her that those are famous last words from owners whose dogs bite people.

Mark-you are probably right. I've been running with no goals in mind since the Mini, except to just run.

Rest is the only thing that I'm doing for the hip right now. The pain doesn't feel as intense as it did a few weeks ago, or even after the Camp Triathlon. Taking things a day at a time. We'll see how things feel after moving a few hundred boxes around this week.

4 at 9:09. This run was in my Omnis and pretty pleasant. Yesterday, we went to Cool Creek and walked some trails. I had the boys run hill repeats with me on a grassy hill--fun.

I was sure my weight would be up this morning because I had the munchies Saturday night and there was caramel corn, but it has been the same every time I stood on the scale this month. Down 3 pounds since June.

Clay--great 15 miler and nice week!

Mark--I agree with Sandy. Your running has been great and the weight will come right off again.

Sandy--hope that hip is not an issue. I picked two zucchini this weekend. I am happy to deliver some bread to you this week.

Clint--great 7 miler

Stephanie--sleeping in is awesome.

Ant--great long run. Yep I am doing the leg lifts. I hope that 35 (or 40) feels easy down the road.